Review: Low Temperature Sintering of TiO2 for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) Fabrication on Flexible Substrates

Abstract

This article discusses the most recent developments in the manufacture of flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), with a focus on the use of flexible plastic substrates instead of rigid glass substrates. The temperature restriction of the substrate in generating TiO2 nanoparticles is a key problem for creating DSSCs on plastic substrates. Ball-milling, acid/water treatments, chemical vapor deposition, and electrophoretic deposition, as well as chemical and mechanical film processing methods such as chemical sintering, hydrothermal treatment, microwave irradiation, and various compression techniques, are all discussed here. It also includes research on novel flexible counter electrode manufacturing processes and recently produced new materials that are particularly beneficial for flexible DSSCs. Finally, the progress and possibilities of large-scale flexible DSSC module fabrication, as well as their endurance, are reviewed.

Progress, challenges, and perspectives on polymer substrates for emerging flexible solar cells: A holistic panoramic review

“…On the surface of PEI substrates, conductive oxide ITO was formed at various thicknesses using the RF magnetron sputtering process. The photoanode films were sintered at 200°C 243 . The utilization of high thermal stability polymer substrates has shown there is room to improve the performance of plastic‐based flexible DSSC.…”

“…On the surface of PEI substrates, conductive oxide ITO was formed at various thicknesses using the RF magnetron sputtering process. The photoanode films were sintered at 200 C. 243 The utilization of high thermal stability polymer substrates has shown there is room to improve the performance of plastic-based flexible DSSC. In addition to polymer substrates, intensive research has been done to identify substitute materials for metal-based dyes, liquid electrolytes, metal CEs, and photoanodes to provide high-efficiency, lowcost devices with stable performance over time.…”

Low-Temperature Fabrication of Flexible Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Influence of Electrolyte Solution on Performance under Solar and Indoor Illumination

“…To address these challenges, innovative strategies and techniques have been proposed to enable the deposition of TiO 2 layers at temperatures within the acceptable range for conducting polymers [19]. Consequently, this has spurred the scientific community to explore diverse methodologies, primarily focused on optimizing the properties of the TiO 2 paste and employing various pre-and post-treatment techniques to achieve high-efficiency flexible devices [42][43][44]. These techniques are further described in Section 5.…”

Recent advancements and challenges in flexible low temperature dye sensitised solar cells

“…DSSC usually has a rigid structure due to the use of glass materials as the conductive substrate to withstand high manufacturing temperatures [19]. However, these structures have several drawbacks in regards to their weight, rigidity and lack of flexibility particularly these days, since there have been growing demands for lightweight, flexible and mobile solar chargers [20]. Therefore, different type of DSSCs has been developed in recent years called a flexible DSSC utilising flexible substrate to further enhance the application of DSSC and keeping them up-to-date in the evolution of solar cell technology.…”

“…This is due to the low temperature used when sintering the photoanode nanoparticles coated on the plastic substrate or for other treatment process as the polymers can only withstand low temperature of below 150°C [26]. Typically, for a rigid glass-based DSSC, the photoanode-coated glass substrate is sintered at high temperature of 450°C for titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles to remove organic surfactant in the photoanode paste or suspension, improve connection between the photoanode particles and better adhesion between the photoanode and the substrate [20]. However, the same process is not applicable for flexible plastic-based DSSC as the substrate would deform at such high temperature.…”